Your employees are the foundation of your business. If you train them well and maintain an environment conducive to efficient, excellent work, your employees will be effective and loyal. But if your organization has problems at its lower levels, your entire business will suffer.

Training

Your guiding strategy should be to hire capable employees and empower them through effective training, which will lead to a high-quality workforce and, ultimately, organizational success, according to “Strategic Training of Employees” by Daniel Wentland. Initial training should introduce the basic job responsibilities to ensure the new recruit gets up to speed as quickly as possible. Continuing education can help existing employees gain new skills, allowing you to expand their responsibilities. This increases your profits by continuously elevating the quality and effectiveness of your workforce. It also enriches their experience and widens their career options.

Employee-Supervisor Relations

The relationship between your employees and upper-level management is vital to the efficient functioning of your organization. On one hand, the lower levels of your organization must take upper-level decisions seriously. Workplace misconduct, for example, must result in serious consequences. On the other hand, browbeating employees won’t create an environment conducive to excellence. Your goal should be to ensure the lower levels of your organization respond well to the directions of supervisors, who in return should be reasonably responsive to employee concerns.

Interpersonal Relations

If your employees can’t work together well, not much will get done. Owners of small businesses might be able to resolve disputes with a hands-on approach, but this time-intensive responsibility takes you away from other, more pressing tasks. If you don’t have the resources to create a human resources department to handle employee issues, consider creating a written dispute resolution policy for typical workplace problems, such as bullying or harassment. Written behavioral guidelines can help resolve brewing problems before they escalate, according to “The Essential Guide to Workplace Mediation & Conflict Resolution: Rebuilding Working Relationships” by Nora Doherty and Marcelas Guyler.

Morale

The combination of proper training and good employee relations is a capable, effective workforce. But external factors can hurt the morale of the lower levels of your organization no matter how well you run your business. For example, fiscally difficult times can lead to malaise and loss of employees. Improve the morale of your employees by allowing them to play a more active role in top-level business decisions. For example, hold group meetings and allow them to voice their concerns publicly without fear of reprisal. Employees who believe their ideas are taken seriously by upper-level management are more likely to support the organization, according to “Communication and Management” by Niraj Kumar.

About the Author

Stan Mack is a business writer specializing in finance, business ethics and human resources. His work has appeared in the online editions of the "Houston Chronicle" and "USA Today," among other outlets. Mack studied philosophy and economics at the University of Memphis.